I love what Jonathan Smith has built at Oregon State but I do feel for Chip Kelly who, although fielding the best defense the Bruins have had in a long time, is breaking in a new Freshman starting QB. He was a five star prospect and will improve over time but can you imagine USC’s Caleb Williams leading a team with a defense as stout as the Bruins. Maybe one day the stars will align for Chip again. Coming into their game in Corvallis—which has become a venue where teams go to die—AP sports writer Anne Peterson, in her article published in the Washington Post, points out just how good the Bruins have been this season and writes; “The numbers are certainly impressive. UCLA is holding opponents to an average of 12.2 points a game and has kept every opponent this season to under 20 points. The Bruins’ D has allowed just five touchdowns — four passing and one rushing — fewest in the Pac-12 and second nationally to Michigan. The Bruins are also limiting teams to 254.2 total offensive yards a game, tops in the Pac-12, including just 64.6 rushing yards, which is the second-fewest nationally.”
With those stats in mind let’s look at what happened in Corvallis. Spoiler alert—UCLA lost 36-24. I guess that tells us right away that they didn’t hold the Beavers to under 20 points, allowing basically three times the average points they’ve been giving up. With Oregon State gaining 415 total yards of offense they also blew that average away by 160 yards. Regarding the rushing yard average of 64.6, the Beavers doubled that—rushing 28 times for 133 yards. That said, UCLA had more total yards of offense than Oregon State; had significantly more 1st Downs at 27-to-18; had 150+ more yards rushing than the Beavers at 287-133; and converted their 3rd downs right around 50% and their five attempted fourth downs at a 60% clip. So what happened? I think this might have been more of a game that UCLA lost than Oregon State won.
The Bruins shot themselves in the foot so many times before the break that even though they played a clean game and kept up point wise the second half it was already too late. On their first possession of the game they threw an interception that led to a field goal. On their second possession they were held to a three and out. Possession number three resulted in an interception that turned into a Beaver TD four plays later. Then right before the end of the 2nd Qtr UCLA’s QB Dante Moore threw up what turned into a 67 yard pick six. In between that mess the Bruins did pick up a TD and a field goal—trailing 23-10 at the end of two. The second half both teams were forced to punt on their first possessions followed by back-to-back TD’s each making it a 36-24 game at the top of the 4th Qtr. After that neither team scored again with Oregon State punting twice and the Bruins turning the ball over on downs twice, the first time on a 4th and 18 at the Oregon State 26 yard line after back-to-back false start penalties and the second sitting 4th and 27 just past midfield after a UCLA holding penalty and back-to-back sacks.
Oregon State’s QB, DJ Uiagalelei connected on almost 60% of his passes for 266 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions with Freshman backup Aidan Chiles adding 16 more yards and another TD on just two pass completions. The ground game for the Beavers was led by Sophomore RB Damien Martinez and Senior DeShaun Fenwick who combined for 142 yards rushing on 24 attempts. The Oregon State defense picked up five sacks and five tackles for loss. On the other side UCLA’s Freshman QB Dante Moore struggled, connecting on just over 40% of his passes for 165 yards and 1 TD to go along with 3 interceptions while also picking up 18 yards rushing. His backup, Junior Collin Schlee, came in and connected on his only passing attempt while also rushing six times for 80 yards. Junior RB Carson Steele led the rushing attack for the Bruins with 22 carries for 110 yards and a score to go along with another 78 yards provided collectively by Sophomore RB TJ Harden and Senior WR Keegan Jones with Harden running it in from nine yards out half-way through the 3rd Qtr.
After also losing to Utah by just a TD in Week-4, this second loss in conference by the Bruins means that Chip is going to have to wait one more year for those stars to align—and they well just might. Regarding UCLA’s defense and the importance of a balanced attack Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith had this to say afterwards: “This is a good defense, they’re going to hold a lot of people to low numbers. We’ve got to make sure the run game, pass game — we’ve got to keep that going. Definitely helps when the defense scores to get that point total up. Each week’s going to be new, but we felt good offensively with what we were able to get done.” The Bruins stay on the road to take on Stanford this next Saturday while the Beavers are on a bye week before they hit the road to take on another team that values defense—Arizona.